I-195 provides a direct highway route to Cape Cod from Rhode Island and, via I-95, from New York and Connecticut as well.

I-195 begins at I-95 at a semi-directional T interchange, which along with a new bridge over the Providence River, was part of the large Iway construction project.

Access to the town of Somerset and the village of Ocean Grove in Swansea is via exit 10 (Route 103).

A bridge over the Acushnet River takes I-195 to the town of Fairhaven, where there is the northern terminus of Route 240 freeway at exit 29.

I-195 cut through the center of Watchemoket Square, which, about 30 years earlier, was the heart of downtown East Providence but was on the decline in the 1950s.

The Rhode Island Department of Transportation (RIDOT) started reconstructing the westbound Washington Bridge in October 2021,[4] following years of delays.

I-195's stretch through Providence was reconstructed with a $610-million (equivalent to $832 million in 2023[6]) project by RIDOT to relocate the I-195 and I-95 intersection.

[7] The relocation made the segment safer for traffic, reunified the Jewelry District with Downtown, and freed up more space.

It involved renovating India Point Park and constructing a 50-foot-wide (15 m) pedestrian bridge;[10] building a signature arch bridge over the Providence River; and improved highway flow, access, and safety, as the original intersection was not built for modern traffic standards.

Along with having to complete numerous repairs on one of the busiest stretches of highway in Rhode Island, traffic volumes had increased tremendously over the years.

The department looked at three alternatives, including a no-build option in which the existing route would be reconstructed.

By October 2009, all westbound traffic on I-195 was using the new highway; the onramps to the old I-195 were closed completely, but some of the old alignment's ramps remained open.

[14] On December 13, 2023, Rhode Island officials announced that two lanes would be restored westbound using two eastbound lanes sometime during the weekend of December 16, but the full repair of the westbound span is still expected to take three months pending any additional findings.

Rhode Island interchanges were renumbered to a mileage-based system early in 2020 in a plan announced by RIDOT in September 2017[18][19] and scheduled to begin on January 28, 2020.

[20][21] In June 2008, RIDOT nominated the Iway bridge float for the America's Transportation Award on the basis that the project "demonstrate[d] innovative management".

[28] The Publicity Club of New England also gave RIDOT its annual "Bell Ringer" award for the Iway logo.